Higurashi no naku kuro ni
by Endar
Summary: A new mystery has appeared, but this time for a new generation. This is a continuation of the When They Cry - Higurashi series, with the children of the main characters, as well as some new ones.
1. Chapter 1

**Story 0**

_Note from author: I do NOT own the rights to Higurashi no __na__ku koro ni. This is a FREE fan fiction._

_Also, the next stories will contain violence, gore, and a variety of disturbing occurrences that one would expect from Higurashi no __na__ku koro ni. Even if it doesn't seem like there could ever been any, there will be. Just FYI._

_Now that that is out of the way, I'll tell you what this is going to be. This story is a continuation from the final episode of Higurashi no __na__ku koro ni kia. The story will take place about 26 years after June 1983. _

_I hope you enjoy. _

Higurashi no naku koro ni

_Prologue_

Japan, Hinamizawa

May 1984

It was quiet. It was always quiet when she came here. The room was small, with medical equipment using most of the space. In the center of the room was a bed, where Satoshi lay. He had been there for almost three years. To the left of the bed, there was most of the monitoring equipment. To the right, there was a window to the hallway. Next to the bed sat Shion Sonozaki.

Shion had brought a local paper with her to read to Satoshi. That was all she could really do. Satoshi was under sedation, so he couldn't talk. Shion just hoped that he could hear her. Sometimes during her visits she would bring a book or a paper to read. Other times, she would just talk to him about how she had been or on how Satoshi's sister, Satako was doing.

It had been almost two years since she discovered where Satoshi had disappeared to. Ever since then, she had come to see Satoshi regularly. She did have to keep it secret though. She had promised Doctor Irie that she would not tell anyone about Satoshi, especially from his sister. The only other person who knew about this was Kasai, her assistant.

Before Satoshi has disappeared three years ago, Shion had promised Satoshi that she would take care of Satako. At that time, she had no idea that this would happen.

She just hoped that one day the boy she loved would come back. But Dr. Irie and Takono had no idea had to do that. _What if_, she thought, _if_ _he was like this for the rest of his life_? _Could I go on without him_? She tried to think if it could do that, but she couldn't see herself without him. Tears started to form in her eyes. "Satoshi…" she began as the tears started to fall. "Please come back, Satoshi".

Just then there was a change in the beeps from one of the consuls. Dr. Irie came running into the room. "What is it?" Shion asked, her eyes still moist from her tears. The doctor looked at the monitor. "I'm sorry, but I am going to have to ask you to leave now." Shion was about to object, but Irie interrupted her. "Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to him while you're gone." Shion walked out the door, where Kasai was waiting for her.

Irie had heard of people in comas responding to a familiar voice, but this situation was different. Satoshi's behavior before he was put under was of extreme paranoia, so extreme that he believed everything around him was trying to kill him. But these readings… They are closer to normal. Could Satoshi be recovering?

Irie spend two hours examining Satoshi. It appeared that Satoshi was beginning to stabilize mentally. He had been doing tests on Satoshi ever since he had arrived here. In all that time, Satoshi had never produced readings like the ones now. They were not completely normal, but compared to his previous results, they were much closer to normal. _But what caused it?_ the doctor thought. _Was it one of the treatments? Was it Shion's visits?_

"I need to get help with this" Irie said as he left the room. _But from who?_ He thought. After Takono recovered, she had left to face her judgment from "Tokyo". "Tokyo" was going to be ending the project soon, and with the events from two years ago, he doubted they would renew their funding. Without any resources, he might not be able to help Satoshi or anyone else who enters level 5. Thankfully, Takono was allowed to continue on this project, so he still had her help. But in the time since then, they haven't figured out anything that could produce the brain activity that Satoshi just displayed.

Irie continued down the hall until he came to his office. He opened the door and walked in. On his desk, there were some envelopes. "So the mail is here." He sat down and started to go through the pile of envelopes. Suddenly, he stopped. "What is this?"


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two_

_One Month Later_

It was a beautiful summer day. The sky was a perfect blue and had just the right number of clouds. Shion had come to the village to visit Satoshi, but Dr. Irie wouldn't let her. When she asked him why, he wouldn't answer. He wouldn't even let her into the sub-level of the clinic.

That wasn't the only change Shion had noticed at the clinic. She also saw a shipment of new supplies and equipment for the clinic. But the funding was supposed to stop this year. Before she could look into it, her sister, Mion, had dragged her to today's club event. Since Shion had promised Irie that she would keep Satoshi's location a secret, she couldn't tell her sister about it. It wasn't that she didn't want to be there, she just wanted to know what was going on. Fortunately, she had asked Kasai to look into it. He would find out what was going on, assuming he did as she asked.

Class was over for the day and Mion had gathered all the students outside. In all were 16 people there, including Shion. Everyone was wearing shorts because of the summer heat.

In the middle of the school yard, there was an outline of a large rectangle, made of tennis chalk. A few meters away from the half was point of the rectangle, two additional lines were made that stretched from one of the long sides to the other. Within the rectangle Scattered randomly around the school yard were several wooden crates of various sizes. While the largest crate was less then a meter tall, all of them were big enough to hide behind.

On the shorter sides of the rectangle were two posts, one at each side. The posts were slightly over a meter tall. Attached to each post was a small white flag. Each post was surrounded by a half circle of chalk with a radius of 2 meters. There were no crates within these circles.

All of the students were standing outside of the rectangle, facing one of the longer ends. Between them and the rectangle stood Mion.

"Alright everyone," she began. "Today we are going to be doing a new game, called Capture the Flag."

"Capture the flag?" asked Keiichi Maebara. Everyone else was just as confused as Keiichi. They had never heard of it before.

"It's like a western version of Botori," Mion explained to them. "though it does not need as many players and it does not any pulling or wrestling."

"We will play here," Mion said as she gestured with her right hand to indicate the rectangle. "Why don't we just play in the forest?" one of the younger students asked. "I thought of that," Mion began to explain. "But it would be difficult to run in there and I don't want anyone to get hurt."

"No, you just wanted an excuse to make me suffer." Keiichi commented. Rena, who was standing next to him, asked "What do you mean?"

"Mion had me come up here after class and unload those crates and put them out there, while she was reading _Shōnen Jump_."

"Well you did lose in our last club game," Mion noted. "And that was your punishment." "So that's why Mion asked you to stay after class yesterday." Rena said with a hint of relief in her voice. "Huh?" Keiichi asked, somewhat confused over Rena's answer. But before Rena could respond, Mion interrupted by whistling loudly. "Alright, people. Let's get back on topic here.

Mion pointed to the lines in the center of the playing field. "The lines here is the border between the two sides. When a person is in the other teams territory, that team can capture him/her by grabbing them. However, you cannot capture someone on there side or in the space between the two territories."

Mion continued to explain the rules of the game for a few more minutes. She then began to number the other students by either 1 or 2. When she was done, she had the ones go to her left, and the twos to her right. On team 1 were Mion, Rika, Satoko, and five of the other classmates. Everyone else was on team 2.

When she was done and the teams were set, Mion had them go to their territories. "Just a reminder," she called out to them. "For a team to win, you have to capture the enemy flag five times." Mion then jogged over to her team's territory. Once she was inside, she shouted "Begin!"

_The score is Team 1: 0 Team 2: 0_

The game had just begun. Neither side had made any hostile moves towards the other. Both teams were working on their strategies. On team 2's side, most of them were grouped together, while the rest were keeping watch on the border.

"Any ideas on how we get their flag?" Keiichi inquired. There was a brief pause before anyone answered. "If we can divert some of their attention away from one side of the border, we might be able to slip in." Rena suggested. "It's worth a try," Shion agreed. "If you guys would create a diversion, I'll go in."

"Right," Keiichi and Rena responded. The huddle broke up and took positions along the border. Shion went to the far left end.

Keiichi waited for the right moment. And once it came, he and two of his teammates ran through the border zone and into the enemy's territory. Immediately, about half of the enemy team moved to intercept them.

Keiichi and his two wing men proceeded to scatter and weave around the enemy defense and the crates, trying to look like they were heading for the flag. One of them was not able to keep up the pace and was caught by Rika. Keiichi and his surviving wing man, they moved to the right side of the field, drawing their pursuers away from the left side of the border.

And while their defenses were distracted, Shion made her move. She quickly crossed the border and tried to use the crates to hide herself as she advanced towards the flag. Keiichi and his team mate were forced to pull back to their territory to avoid capture. However, Satoko and Mion saw her crossing and quickly moved to intercept her. Shion tried to out run them, but her path ahead was blocked by two other students who had been hiding behind crates.

Seeing that she could not make it to the flag, Shion turned around and started for border. But Satoko was able to reach her before she could. She dove at Shion, reaching out with her hand. Shion jumped to the left, right in front of a crate, but lost her footing when she landed and tripped. She managed to avoid hitting the crate by leaning to the side and landed on the dry ground. A cloud of dust formed around her from the impact. Satoko's dive resulted in another dust cloud. Mion charged into Shion's dust cloud and Satoko followed soon after.

Keiichi and his surviving teammate managed to escape into the border and were now watching what was going on. However, they could not see what was going on, because of the dust and the crate. A few seconds after Satoko entered the cloud, Shion emerged, running towards her teams side. "That was close," she panted as she had crossed the border.

Suddenly, Rika and three of her team mates charged in on the opposite side of the border from where Shion returned. Keiichi and some of the others moved to intercept the invaders. As soon as they approached, Rika and her teammates scattered. Rena was able to tag one of them, but the others continued. Rika and one of her teammates pressed on towards the flag, while the other, a little girl, turned to retreat. She was not able to get far before she was tagged.

Meanwhile, Keiichi was able to catch up to Rika and her teammate and tagged them. "Is that all they had?" Keiichi asked as he headed back to the border. "Not quite," Shion said. Keiichi turned and saw Shion running crossing the border with their teams flag in her hands. "What are you doing, Shion?" Keiichi exclaimed as Shion brought their flag to the other team's flag.

"It was Mion!" Rena shouted. On the other team's territory, they could see the real Shion getting up from behind one of the crates. "Shion, what happened?" Keiichi asked her as she crossed into their territory. "They trapped me inside that crate," she said, indicating the crate she had gotten up from. "Satoko had tagged me and then sis came up from my left and opened it. Then she and Satoko pushed me in there before I could do anything."

Keiichi suddenly remembered something that happened yesterday, while he was setting up the crates. He had brought a crate to one of the sides, when Mion suddenly got up and told him to put on the other team's side. At the time, he thought she was just being cruel, but now he wondered if it was something else.

"What is it?" Shion asked seeing the look on Keiichi's face. "I remember now," Keiichi said out loud. "Mion had me move that crate to the other side after I placed it."

"I'm disappointed, Keiichi," Mion said as she fixed her hair. "I thought you would have seen through that."

_The score is Team 1: 1 Team 2: 0_


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2.3

The game resumed once the flag was returned and the prisoners were released. Keiichi, Rena, and Shion were huddled together just outside of the flag zone. The other team members had spread out and were hiding behind the crates.

Keiichi looked over the crates towards the other side. Over in the enemies territory, the members of Team 1 were hiding as well. Once he was done looking, Keiichi got down. "So it looks like they're using the same defense plan we are," Keiichi said after he ducked back down.

"Using the crates, they can ambush anyone who tries to reach their flag," Shion noted.

"But the crates also help us," Rena said. "If they are behind a crate, they cannot see anyone coming towards them."

"So we would have to sneak in then," Keiichi reasoned.

"It's too risky to send a group," Shion said. "So we'll have to send one person in as a scout. They might even be able to get to the flag."

"So, who goes in first?" Rena asked.

No one answered. They all just stood there, waiting for someone else to step up. No one really wanted to be the first one to attempt it. Since the enemy team was hiding behind the crates in their territory, there was no way to know where their defense was positioned. So the first person to go in will end up being like a canary in a mine shaft.

A moment passed and still no one volunteered. "Alright then," Shion said. "We'll do Rock-Paper-Scissors. The loser is the scout." The others agreed and prepared to play.

"Rock. Paper. Scissors. Shoot."

The three of them threw out their choices. Keiichi had picked paper, while Rena and Shion had picked scissors.

"No!" Keiichi almost yelled in protest. "Why do I have to be the scout?"

"Well, good luck Keiichi," Shion said. Rena tried to encourage him too. "Do your best Keiichi. Do your best.".

"Come on!" Keiichi protested. "Are you really just going to send me out there on my own?"

"We could keep trying to attack their front defense," Shion thought outloud. "That way they will be distracted and Keiichi can sneak in."

"Alright." Keiichi said reluctantly as he got ready.

So with that Keiichi began his mission. He crawled closer to the border and crouched behind a crate near the border, trying to come up with some plan to get to the enemy flag without being seen.

_Maybe I should try getting in one of those crates and using it to hide my advance?_ Keiichi thought. _Nah, that would never work_. _There is no way they wouldn't notice a box that moved_. After racking his brain to find another way, Keiichi found one. _I'll just have to crawl my way up there._

Keiichi got down on all fours and started to crawl towards the border.

Once he made it through the border, Keiichi ducked behind the first crate he could find.

He carefully peeped around the crate to see if it was clear. He was in luck. No one was hiding behind it, but he could see Rika a few crates down. Keiichi quickly pulled his head back. He waited for a moment before continuing. Peeking around the crate again, Keiichi watched Rika for an opening, but nothing came up. There was only a second or two when she wasn't looking towards his direction, and that was not long enough to get past her.

_ What do I do?_ Keiichi thought. _If I could just distract her for a moment_. Keiichi looked around him for anything he could use.

Keiichi picked up the rock and moved back a bit. Turning towards Rika's direction, he threw the rock. The rock flew for a few meters and hit a crate on the other side of Rika, making a thud. Keiichi quickly moved forward. Looking towards Rika, he saw that his plan worked. The sound the rock made on the crate made Rika think there was someone over there, so she was looking in that direction. With the opening, Keiichi quickly crawled to the next crate.

He continued to advance like that.

Keiichi was about to sneak past some of the others, but when he was half way to the flag, he was spotted. One of the younger students had turned her head just as Keiichi was trying to sneak pass and saw him. "He's here!" she cried out as she got up and started towards him. With his position revealed, he got up and ran towards the flag.

"Nice try Keiichi," Mion commented from somewhere behind him. Glancing back, he saw that Mion and Satoko were heading for him.

As he got closer to the flag, Keiichi carefully watched his step as he quickly made his way to the flag. Since Satoko was on their team, there would probably be plenty of traps around the flag. He knew that Satoko would disguise her traps well. He noticed what looked like some freshly dug dirt, almost completely hidden by the grass. He jumped over the dirt spot and landed safely. He was about to take another step forward, when suddenly the ground in front of him collapsed. Keiichi teetered on the edge of the pit hole for a second before he recovered. _I didn't even notice it,_ he thought as he recovered.

Keiichi went around the trap hole and ran for the flag. Once he was in range, he quickly reached out and grabbed the flag. _Got it._

He turned and started to head back, but then he saw that the enemy team was moving to block the way he came in. _I'll have to risk a different path_, Keiichi quickly realized. Keiichi choose the moderately safe looking path, since he knew Satoko would make the safest looking path impassible with traps. He started off along that path. As he was approaching the edge of the flag circle, he felt something pull on his leg.

Suddenly, Keiichi found himself up in the air inside a net. "You fell for it, Keiichi!" Satoko exclaimed. _Damn it_, Keiichi thought to himself. He should have realized that Satoko would have done a trick like that. _At least I found one way in_, he realized. _There has to be something I could do to make this more worth while_. Then he remembered he had put a pen in his pocket earlier. _That might work_. He reached into his pocket and pulled the pen out.

Keiichi removed the cap from the pen and began to draw on the flag. He had to be careful not to be seen. It was hard to draw without any hard surface, or inside a net for that matter. However, he was able to finish without anyone noticing.

_ Done_, Keiichi said to himself as he finished. He then put the cap back on the pen and returned it to his pocket. No sooner than he had done that, the net went into a free fall as Satoko had released the rope holding the net up. Keiichi and the net hit the ground with a thud.

"Ouch"

It took a moment for Keiichi to recover from the impact. As soon as he did, he quickly tried to sit up in the net. However, he found that too difficult and gave up as Satoko began to untie the net. Keiichi turned his head towards Satoko. "Hey, what the hell was that for?" Keiichi exclaimed. "I could have broken something." Satoko waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, come on," she said. "It was only three feet."

Satoko released Keiichi from the net. She then extended her left hand out to take the flag back. Keiichi put the flag in her hand. He was sure to do it so his idea was unnoticed. As Keiichi walked to the prison, Satoko headed to the flag post, taking an unusual path instead of walking straight towards it. Once she reached the post, she tied one end of the flag to the post. Once she had tied it, she headed back to the front line.

A breeze blew across the field and lifted the flag up, revealing Keiichi's art work. On the flag was now a sketch of a small bunny. It was standing on its hind legs and its head was facing them. With its front paws, it held a carrot. Its ears were perked up and there was a little smile on its face.

Most of the students were just staring at the flag and trying to figure out why Keiichi did that. Keiichi looked over at Rena and saw her reaction. "It's sooo cuute!" Rena exclaimed. That was the reaction Keiichi had been hoping for.

"I want to take it home!" she cried as she dashed down the school yard, dodging the opponent team members, crates, and traps. One of the kids actually jumped onto a crate to avoid getting trampled by Rena. Mion, Rika, and Satoko were not scared. They moved to intercept Rena. However, they were too slow to stop Rena from reaching the trap defenses around the flag. Satoko was the closest to the flag, and went to block the route Rena had taken to avoid the traps. Mion and Rika were moving to block any escape to the left and right of Satoko.

Meanwhile, Rena grabbed the flag, and just like Keiichi, the way she went in was now blocked. Unphased by this, she went down another path.

_ I hope she knows what she's doing_, Shion said to herself. They all knew that there were traps around the flag, and taking an unknown path was risky. One unlucky step and it would be over.

Following an erratic course, Rena reached the assumed end of the traps around the flag. With that, she started to run back to the border. Mion and Satoko was shocked that Rena had made it out without tripping any of the traps, but that didn't stop them from heading for Rena. However, there was a slight problem. Mion could not go straight for Rena, because that would take her through their own traps. So instead, she had to circle around them to get to Rena.

Rika was still ahead of Rena, but Rena was able to dodge her by using a crate and a sudden turn. With that, she passed Rika without entering her arm reach. Some Rika's teammates were surprised by Rena's evasion of Rika and were slow to react. This gave Rena just enough time to pass over the border.

"That was amazing, Rena!" Her teammates cheered. "Way to go, Rena!"

"How did you get out without triggering any traps?" Keiichi asked as he was approaching his team's side. Rena smiled and answered, "Rena just watched the path Satoko took when she put the flag back and how she walked."

"I didn't know you were good at drawing," Shion commented. Keiichi explained, "Well, I don't do it a lot. It's just that I picked up a few things from my dad."

Mion approached the border. "Since I don't think Rena will give up that flag," she began. "we'll just use this extra one I brought." she said as she produced another flag.


	4. Chapter 4

_Note from Author: I'm really sorry for the delay. The remaining chapters will be finished and posted by February 11. The reason for this is that according to the Higurashi wikia, Mion and Shion's birthday is February 11. _

_To recap, _

_Team 1: Rika, Mion, Satoko, Haru, Kazuki, Chiyo, Souta, Kenta_

_Team 2: Keiichi, Rena, Shion, Aya, Okamura , Tometa, Yuto, Shun, Emi_

_The score is Team 1: 1 Team 2: 1_

When the game resumed, both teams were trying to get into the others territory. The first few attempts by both teams failed, but they were slowly getting closer to reach their target. The defensive strategy that both sides had adopted was laying in wait behind the crates for the attackers to pass. In Team 2's territory, the team leaders were trying to come up with a new strategy. Shion, Keiichi, and Rena were crouching behind one of the large crates about mid way between the flag and the border.

"Does anyone have an attack plan?" Keiichi asked Rena and Shion.

"I think I have an idea," Shion said as she reached into her pocket. "I came prepared with this," Shion said as she pulled out a cloth flag similar to the one on the other side. "We can use this to confuse them."

"Great idea," Rena said.

"This should look just like the real flag from a distance," Shion continued. "We'll just need someone else to carry this fake."

She looked around for someone. After a quick scan of the area, the only others she could see were Aya and Okamura. Shion quietly signaled them to come over to her. The two little kids saw her beckoning them and carefully made their way to her.

"Yes?" Aya asked as she and Okamura were near. "We need you two to help us carry out a plan," Shion began as she started to explain her idea to Aya and Okamura.

She first turned towards Aya to explain her role. "You'll carry this fake flag." Shion said as she handed Aya the flag. "You'll need to hide it until you get to the flag. Then you have to take it out without the other team seeing. Do you understand?" Aya nodded. She thought for a moment before she stuffed the fake flag up the sleeve of her t-shirt.

Shion then turned to Okamura. "You'll carry the real flag. You'll run back to our side, but not with Aya. The two of you will have to take different paths back. Try to hide the flag as much as you can."

"Okay," said Okamura.

"I'll run as a distraction, so you two can get to the flag." Shion continued. "Are you two ready?"

"Roger," the two kids replied. And with that they were off. The three slowly and stealthily made there way to the border. At the last line of crates, the group took cover behind one of them. Shion peeked around the crate scanned the line of crates on the other side of the border for anyone on watch. She occasionally saw a head or two poke out from behind a crate, watching for incomings. When she saw that no one was looking, they dashed across the border and took cover by the first line of crates.

Shion moved in alone and intentionally spotted by one of the defenders. She then got up and started to flee. Meanwhile, Aya and Okamura were able to sneak past the defense, avoid the traps, and reach the flag. By the time they had reached the flag, Shion had been captured and the defenders had noticed them. Avoiding the traps, Aya and Okamura got to the flag. There Aya switched the flags and started to run back with the fake one and Okamura took the real flag.

Aya made it about a third of the way before she was tagged by Souta. Her captor took the flag from her and began to march her to the prison. Satoko ran up to her teammate to retrieve the flag. Meanwhile, Okamura was running with all his might. Behind him, Rika was in pursuit, but she couldn't get any closer to him. Okamura was almost to the border when Rika suddenly tripped and fell face first onto the ground.

Glancing back, Okamura saw Rika on the ground, her eyes starting to form tears. Forgetting what he was doing, Okamura ran back over and reached down to help her up. "Thank you," Rika said as she reached up and tagged him. Okamura blushing and happy to help, until he heard angry shouting coming from the other side of the border. "What the hell were you thinking?" Keiichi yelled.

When he remembered what he was supposed to be doing, his expression instantly changed to one of embarrassment. Back in Team 1's jail, both Aya and Shion were disappointed by Okamura's blunder. "Boys are so dumb." Shion said. To her left, Aya nodded in agreement.


	5. Chapter 5

With Team 2's offensive thwarted and its numbers almost cut in half, it was the perfect time for Team 1 to attack. While a few of their members were on guard, the remainder of Team 1 was devising a plan of attack.

"I have an idea," Rika said quietly. "Though I don't think I can explain how it will work." the others turned to listen to Rika's plan, expecting it to be a long and complex one because of what she said. Instead, it was very short.

"I just need people to get the enemies away from me." Rika continued. "Only one of them can capture me for the plan to work."

Some of Rika's teammates were confused by her plan, unsure of how being captured would get them the flag. But Mion understood what Rika was thinking. "Alright, Chiyo, Kenta, and Haru, go with Rika," Mion ordered. "Make sure that Rika only has one person going after her." With that, the four of them headed for Team 2's territory. Once inside, the others drew most of the defense's attention, leaving only Tometa in pursuit of Rika. She lured him to spot she had picked out ahead of time. The spot where Tometa's teammates would not see what happened. Once they were there, she put her plan into motion.

Rika stopped running , turned around, and got into one of her cute poses Seeing this, Tometa immediately stopped, his face turned red, and he started to stumble. _Got him_, Rika thought in her mature inner voice. She then quietly said to Tometa, "I'll go to jail now, ok?" Not realizing what was going on, Tometa hastily agreed with Rika and let her walk to the jail. The plan was working perfectly. Tometa's teammates would assume that he tagged her, so that did not try to capture her while she was on her way to the jail.

Once she was there, Rika was able to see where Team 2's defenses were positioned. She watched them for a minute before she began the next part of her plan. Turning to her captured teammates, Rika reached out with her hand and touched each of them. "What are you doing?" Chiyo asked as Rika touched her. "I tricked them into thinking that Tometa tagged me," Rika explained. "Since I'm not captured, I can free you guys. Just wait for me before going back."

Making sure the coast was clear, Rika quickly and quietly ran out of the jail and took cover by the nearest crate. She then carefully headed for the flag. When she reached the open area near the flag, she hid herself and checked for anyone watching. She already knew the watch pattern that Team 2's members used, even if they did not know they were doing it themselves. Waiting for the right moment, when the flag was unwatched for the longest time, she dashed up, grabbed the flag, and headed back to the jail.

Rika arrived back at the jail just in time. Yuto, one of Team 2's defenders, looked back and saw the flag was gone. "They got the flag!" he shouted. While he was alerting Team 2 to the flag, Rika had her freed teammates start back for their side. She arranged them in a small triangle formation, with herself in the middle.

"They freed the prisoners too!" one of the members of Team 2 shouted, not noticing that Rika had the flag. The group continued uninterrupted, while Team 2 hopelessly searched for their flag.

Once the prisoners arrived on Team 1's side, they broke formation and Rika triumphantly held up Team 2's flag. Seeing Rika with the flag, Team 2 immediately called her out for cheating, since a prisoner could not bring the flag back.

"You can't capture the flag if you were just freed," Keiichi argued. "You were tagged."

"Tometa didn't tag me," Rika cheerfully answered. Everyone in Team 2 turned and looked at Tometa, who was thinking back on what happened. He then remembered that he had not tagged Rika and a panicked expression crossed his face. This immediately confirmed what Rika had said. Back in Team 1's jail, both Aya and Shion were again disappointed by what happened. "Yep, boys really are dumb." Aya said. Behind them, Okamura was sitting in the fetal position, still depressed by how he had failed.

_The score is Team 1: 2 Team 2: 1_

The flag was returned and the prisoners were released. Once everyone and everything was back where it was supposed to be, the game resumed.

"I have another idea," Shion began. "I just need to get a little something first." She moved back to a row of crates and got behind one of them. "Hopefully this plan works better than the last one." Keiichi quietly remarked. "It wasn't my fault that Okamura had a weakness for Rika." Shion countered. Turning back to the crate, Shion grabbed the back side of the crate and started to pry it off. The back came clean off. Inside the crate was an assortment of items.

"I guess you could call this a weapons cache." Shion said as she reached into the crate. She began to shift through the various items in the crate, occasionally pulling one out to inspect. The first item she pulled out was a baseball bat that she had borrowed from the school. Since weapons like that were not allowed, she quickly returned it to the crate. The next item she pulled out was a taser. Holding it pointed towards the sky, Shion pressed the trigger and the taser came to life with an electric crackle. A scary look came over her face as the electric glow illuminated her face.

"I don't think you should use something like that here, Shion." Rena nervously said.

Shion's face changed back to normal as she returned to reality from... where ever she went off to. Putting the taser back, Shion resumed search the crate. She did not have to search long before she found what she needed.

"Here we go," she exclaimed quietly. Pulling her hand out of the crate, she now held a small canister in her hand. On the canister was a loose ring connected to a pin near the top of the canister. _Is that a hand grenade?_ Keiichi and Rena thought. _Maybe the taser would have been better_. Meanwhile, Shion had replaced the panel on the crate and had turned around to face Keiichi and Rena. Seeing the looks on their faces, Shion raised her hands and reassured her friends. "No, no. It's not something dangerous."

"So it's not a bomb?" Rena timidly asked.

"Well, it's not the kind that kills people." Shion answered.

"That reassuring." Keiichi said sarcastically.

Shion ignored Keiichi's sarcasm and continued. "For my plan to work, I'll need some help." She looked around their defensive line and saw that Aya was nearby. _She worked out great in the last plan,_ Shion thought before she quietly signaled her to come. As soon as she saw Shion beckoning for her, Aya crawled over from her position to meet with Shion.

Shion leaned over and whispered something into Aya's right ear. "You got it?" The little girl quietly nodded. Shion carefully handed the canister over to Aya.

"Alright," Shion said. "Let's go."

Together, Aya and Shion carefully crossed the border into Team 1's territory. The two weaved through the crates, doing their best to avoid being seen. At the first line of defense, Shion peeked around the crate and spotted Kenta and Rika on the far side from them.

_She's not here_, Shion thought.

They slipped past them and moved on. When they were about half way to the flag, they found their target. Shion spotted her sister not too far from where they were. Shion pulled her head back behind the crate and signaled Aya.

Mion peeked out from behind her crate. The other team had tried some rush ins, but they had failed. Mion was trying to figure out what Team 1's next move would be when she heard a noise. She turned towards the source of the noise and saw Aya's face peeking around the end of the crate. When Aya realized Mion had seen her, she quickly withdrew behind the crate and started to flee. Mion got up and gave chase. Aya was not going very fast. It seemed that she was tired. _I guess I can't expect everyone to still have energy this long into the game_, Mion thought.

Mion was almost in reach of Aya when she noticed something. In Aya's left hand was a small, metal canister. Her other hand was holding a ring on the top of the canister. "Wait, is tha..." Mion was cutoff by a loud hissing sound.

The place where Mion and Aya were was now covered in a thick cloud of smoke. The smoke rapidly spread and covered about half of Team 1's territory. About half their team was caught inside the cloud, while the rest were watching its perimeter for anyone trying to get out.

While inside the smoke screen, a few of Team 1's defenders saw the Shion's silhouette in the smoke. Coughing because of the smoke, they ran towards Shion. Meanwhile, Mion, who had been blinded by the dust was now regaining her sight. "We have *cough* to run, Shion *cough*." Mion heard Aya saying urgently nearby. Mion was just about to grab Aya when something got a hold of her from behind. Looking back, Mion could barely make out three short people grabbing onto her.

"We got you Shion *cough*!" Mion heard the voice of Chiyo exclaim.

"What are you *cough* idiots doing?" Mion demanded as she tried to shake them off. However, her three teammates ignored her and fought to hold onto what they thought was Shion.

"I'm not Shion. *cough* I'm Mion." Mion protested.

"Oh no, *cough* they got Shion!" Aya cried out as she ran away from Mion. That did not help Mion's situation.

While Mion was trying to clear the misunderstanding, the real Shion was sneaking around the chaos. The enemies, who had not gone to catch Aya and who they thought was Shion, were distracted by the spectacle going on and were not as alert as they should have been. On top of that, Shion had tied her hair to make herself look more like her sister.

Mion had thrown the teammates who had tried to capture her onto the ground and was now getting back at them for their idiocy when the smoke started to dissipate. Looking up, Mion saw that the flag was now in Shion's hands. "You idiots, *cough* the real Shion just stole the flag!"

Hearing this, Shion picked up the pace and made a run for the border. Thanks to the diversion, Team 1's defensive line now had a hole in it. Mion realized Shion's plan instantly and ran to intercept her, but was too late. Shion crossed the border and scored. As Team 2 cheered Shion's success, Aya ran up to her. Shion turned towards her.

"Great job, Aya" Shion said as she gave Aya a high five.

_The score is Team 1: 2 Team 2: 2_

After Shion's success, both sides began launching some covert attacks on each other. Neither side had much luck at first, until Shion was able to reach the flag again. Thanks to Emi and Yuto, she had grabbed the flag, but now they had been captured and Team 1 was on their way to get her. Shion tried to run for the border, but was blocked by the enemy. She saw one of her teammates, Shun was close and was not cut off. Shion tossed the flag to Shun and he immediately took off for the border. He ran as fast as he could, barely managing to avoid running into someone. He was almost to the border and was sure of his success. _I did it!_ He thought to himself. When suddenly, his left leg refused to move forward. Losing his balance, the boy fell forward onto the ground and was caught be Team 1.

"What happened?" Shun said, unable to figure out how he just suddenly tripped. Shion, who had been captured, saw immediately what had caused it."A trip wire!" She knew immediately who had set that up.

With the last attack a failure, Team 2 was again in a bad position. Many of their players had been captured, making it difficult for them to launch an attack without sacrifices their defense. Keiichi was sneaking into Team 1's territory to retrieve their captured comrades, when Team 1 launched an attack. They sent four people into Team 2's territory. One of them, Chiyo, was able to bypass the defenses and get the flag. Her teammates moved to buy her some time to get back, but were quickly captured.

While they were being dealt with, Rena moved in and tackled Chiyo down to the ground. As she fell to the ground, Chiyo throw the flag forward, as if to try and pass it to an invisible teammate. Meanwhile, Keiichi, who had just freed the prisoners, returned. He and Shion noticed Chiyo's throw but did not immediately figure out what she was doing. Once the flag hit the ground, they realized what she was doing.

"Rena, the flag!" Shion shouted towards the young red hair. Looking up, Rena saw what Shion was shouting about. Their flag was moving towards the border, but it was not being carried by anyone. Rushing to the flag, Rena tried to grab it. It was almost at the border and Rena dove at the flag, but it suddenly sped up. Rena landed face first on the ground and missed the flag, which continued to move as if by itself. It passed through the border and stopped just after of the first row of crates, where it was grabbed by a small hand from behind the crate.

A moment later, Satoko crawled out from behind the crate, with the flag in her left hand and a reel in the other. She stood up and exclaimed, "Look what I caught". Satoko then raised her left hand up to her chin and started to laugh.

_The score is Team 1: 3 Team 2: 2_

The game continued on. Both teams employed clever tricks and tactics until at last the scores were tied at four. This was a classic moment, were the game could go either way. Keiichi, Rena, and Shion decided that they should go together to capture the flag, and leave everyone else on defense. They were half way there when they were spotted by the defenders, who immediately gave pursuit in the form of a small group.

Shion decided to buy Rena and Keiichi some time, so she turned towards their pursuers and charged at them. The defenders of Team 1 were confused by Shion's actions to see what her plan was. When they reach each other, Shion did not stop. Instead, she ran right into them, causing something like a car pile up. This gave Keiichi and Rena the time they needed to get to the flag.

Just as Keiichi grabbed the flag, he heard a commotion behind him. He quickly turned around and saw what the shouting was about. Team 1 had also launched an attack and Mion had not only managed to avoid getting intercepted, but had made it to the flag.

_ They got our flag too!_

Keiichi started for the border as fast as he could. Rena gave him some cover from the defenders who had recovered from their collision with Shion. Mion was almost across the border when suddenly a hand reach out for the side and grabbed her leg. This caused Mion to trip just short of the border and gave Keiichi enough time to cross and score the winning goal.

_Final score is Team 1: 4 Team 2: 5_


	6. Chapter 6

With the game over, the penalties were handed out. "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" Mion said bitterly. "Extremely, yes," Keiichi answered with a grin. He was laying on the ground in the shade of a tree, reading the issue of _Shōnen Jump_ Mion had been reading the day before. "I cannot wait for next weeks _Dragon Ball_." Keiichi exclaimed.

"Don't spoil it for me!" Mion shouted. "I didn't read it yet."

Unlike Keiichi, Mion was not having fun. Her punishment game was to wear the costume that she had gotten for Keiichi. It was a baby costume, complete with a dipper, bib, bonnet, and a pink binky. Because the costume did not have a top, Mion kept her's own. Keiichi had protested this.

"If I had lost, you'd make me take my top off."

"Shut up, you perv!" Mion had yelled as she punched him.

"I get the part about putting the crates back," Mion began as she resumed pushing a crate back into the pile. "But why do I have to be wearing this while I do it?"

"I thought it would be a waste not to use it since you bought it for me to wear if I lost the game," Keiichi replied.

"Speaking of which, why don't you have the binky in your mouth?"

"Because I can't..." Mion began before she realized why Keiichi asked. "You just want me to be quiet, don't you?" To that, Keiichi ignored Mion and resumed reading the manga.

While Mion got back to moving the crates, her other teammates were hanging around. Like Mion, they were forced to wear costumes for losing. However, they were too young to be able to help Mion move the crates. This did not stop the winners from giving them other jobs. Satoko was serving them cold water, while wearing a classic western maid outfit. "Where did you get this?" Satoko asked, the annoyance of having to wear it was obvious in her voice.

"I got it from Dr. Irie," said Rena, who was sitting under the shade watching Mion work and trying to control her urge to start taking her classmates that she thought looked cute in their costumes home. Keiichi was disturbed that the doctor would have something like that and in Satoko's size too.

"When Rena saw Dr. Irie getting it in the mail, Rena knew she had to take it home with her."

The conversation continued on until Mion had finished putting all the crates away. By the time she finished, the sun was starting to set. Everyone started to head to their homes. Shion met up with Kasai, her watcher from her family. She had asked him to look into the clinic for anything that would explain the sudden changes there.

"Did you find out anything?" Shion asked immediately. There was a brief pause before Kasai answered. "I'm afraid not," he began. "It does look as though the clinic is expanding."

"Expanding?" Shion inquired.

"Yes," Kasai confirmed. "There was a shipment of new equipment to the clinic. But I don't know what equipment they received."

"I see. Thank you, Kasai," Shion said with some disappointment. She had hoped for an answer, but instead she was given more questions.


	7. Chapter 7

_A few days later…_

The Cotton Drifting Festival was a few days away. Today was a busy day. Everyone was at work setting up for the festival. All along the road, people were busy setting up booths and decorations. The clatter of tools could be heard all over.

Keiichi was helping put up one of the booths. He and all the other students had been helping with festival preparations all day. Rena was helping some of the other ladies do some last minute patch up work on the festival banners. When he got to the festival grounds, he saw a man setting up a booth. Keiichi did not know who he was. He wasn't one of the villagers, or at least Keiichi did not remember seeing him before. The man was about average height and looked to be in his late 30's or early 40's and had short black hair

"Thanks for your help, young man," the man said as they finished up. The man was on his knees, checking some of the lower sections of the booth. "It was no problem." Keiichi answered, "All the kids in the village have off today to help with the festival."

"I see" the man said as he got up and wiped his brow. "My family and I live in Okinomiya, so we don't know about that." he explained.

"Also, my wife needed our son's help today with something today."

"So you're wife is doing something for the festival too?" Keiichi asked. "No," the man answered. "She needed him to help with her class."

As Keiichi looked over the work he had done, he noticed that the stand did not have a banner or sign on it. "So what kind of stand are you going to be running?"

"It's a surprise" the man answered. "This will be the first time we will have a booth in the festival. So we are going to have something new."

"Then I'll have to stop by during the festival," Keiichi said as he started to walk away.

"Thanks again for your help and see you at the festival." the man said.

Keiichi continued to help others around with the set up, along with all the other students. Well, almost all the students.

"Where the hell is Mion?" Keiichi grumble.

"She's at a meeting." a voice answered from right behind him. Keiichi almost jumped in surprise at that. He turned around to see it was Shion. She was carrying a tray of drinks. That was not unusual for Shion. She did work as a waitress at the Angel Mort, a restaurant in the town of Okinomiya. _Too bad she's not wearing one of their uniforms_, Keichii thought. Shion noticed the look on Keiichi's face and realized what he was thinking. So she took one of the cups she had and tossed the water in it in his face.

"What was that for?" Keiichi demanded.

"Don't play innocent. I know what you were thinking."

Thankfully, the sun was out and it was hot, so being soaked in water was not too bad.

"So what was that you were saying about Mion?" Keiichi asked to get back on topic.

"She and Rika are at a meeting of the village elders."

"A meeting about what?" he asked. "It must be important if Rika is there. I thought she would be practicing for the ceremony."

Shion shrugged. "I don't know." she said. "It probably has something to do with the festival."

Meanwhile, at the village hall, the village elders were all gathered there, including the aged head of the Sonozaki family, Oryō Sonozaki. Also present were Rika, Mion, and Dr. Irie. "We have called this meeting at the request of Dr. Irie," Oryō began. "He has an important issue to bring to our attention." With that, Irie stood up.

"Before I get to the matter I asked all of you here for, I will start at the beginning."


	8. Chapter 8

_The night before the festival_

It had been a long day at work for Mion. Her boss had her work overtime because of an inventory mistake. As a result, she had to stay at the store two hours longer than usual. But now work was over and Mion was riding her bike home from Okinomiya. It was already dark and she did not want to linger outside for long during the night. A few days ago, Mion had heard about a woman being assaulted in the town. Apparently, she was walking around in the evening and a group of thugs had grabbed her and pulled her into an alley. The men behind this were still at large. The report said that there were four of them. Because of this and the time, there was hardly anyone on the streets.

Mion grimaced slightly as she made the turn. Her arms were still sore from moving those crates back a few days ago.

_ I guess I'll just have to make Keiichi pay for that during the festival tomorrow_, she thought. _Maybe I could force him to wear something embarrassing during the festival_, she thought, but then she shook her head. _Nah, that's been done before_. Mion continued to ponder over how she could best torture Keiichi for a few minutes, but nothing seemed right. _I'll just wait and see what happens at the festival_, Mion concluded.

Suddenly, Mion remembered that she was riding her bike and was about to go down the wrong road, so she made a sudden turn. Unfortunately, this brought Mion and her bike into a collision course with a row of parked motorcycles. Mion swerved away, but bumped one of them enough to cause it to topple over. This set off a domino effect with the remaining bikes. It came to an end with a loud crash as the bike on the other end hit the sidewalk. Mion had stopped her bike and dismounted. She stood over the pile of motorcycles and surveyed the damage.

"This is bad," Mion said to herself.

Before Mion could do anything, a thick arm wrapped tightly around her neck. "You're coming with us," a gruff male voice growled from behind her. As the man began to drag her away, Mion tried to fight back but it didn't help. She couldn't kick any of the man's weak areas. She tried to hit him with her hands, but her arms were grabbed by two other men.

Mion was dragged back along the walkway and pulled into an alley. As she entered the alley, a man came up from behind them and stood near the entrance of the alley. He had a brown punch perm and a creepy face. He looked back at Mion for a moment and a sick smile crossed his face.

Mion was dragged to the end of the alley. There, the man released his arm wrap around her neck. One of her other captors, who had been restraining her left arm, walked around her and turned to face her.

"Well, little missy" the boss began. "Ya saw what ya did to our bikes. Now how are ya going to make up for that?" the boss said as he stared down at Mion.

"I'm sorry about the bikes," Mion said. "And I'll pay for the dama…" But before she could finish, the thug behind her quickly swung a gag over her head, like a jump rope. Just as it was in front of her mouth, he pulled back on the ends of the gag, forcing it into Mion's open mouth. Mion was startled by what was happening and tried to hit the thug with her free hand, but the boss swung a punch at Mion's face. The punch hit her hard on the cheek. At the same time, the goon holding her right arm let his grip go. That and the impact caused her to fall to the ground.

Before Mion could do anything, the thug who had gagged her got down and pinned Mion's arms to the ground. Likewise, the boss had dropped down and used his knees to hold Mion's legs down. "Oh, don't worry," the boss began as he leaned closer to Mion's face. "Ya'll be able to pay us." the boss said as he starred lustfully at Mion.

_ Not this_, Mion thought. Mion tried to scream, but the gag muffled her. She tried to struggled against them, trying to free her arms and legs, but it was hopeless. She couldn't overpower them.

_ Please stop._

The boss glanced up at the goon and nodded. The goon reached down, grabbed Mion's shirt, and tore it. The boss whistled at the sight of her exposed chest. "It looks like we'll have lots of fun with ya," he said as he took hold of Mion's pants and began to pull them off.

But before he could finish, there was an echoing thud from the entrance of the alley. They all looked and saw that punch perm had collapsed on the ground. Standing above his motionless body was the silhouette of a young man, who was now moving towards them. Mion could not make out who the young man was, but she saw that he was carrying what looked like a box.

Meanwhile, the boss turned towards his goon, who nodded and charged at the boy. As he advanced, the goon pulled out a knife. Seeing the goon running at him, the young man tossed the box, or whatever it, was on his side and moved towards the goon. The goon thrusted his knife at the boy, but the boy sidestepped him and instantly grabbed the goon's knife hand. He then throw a series of fast attacks at the goon with his legs and free hand and finished with a hard strike to the elbow. The strike, in combination with the grab, caused the goon's arm to break. The goon fell to his knees in pain just as the boy throw another series of quick attacks, knocking the goon out.

The fight between the boy and the goon only lasted a few seconds. The boss was stunned by what he just saw, but he quickly recovered. He got off of Mion and turned to face the newcomer. "Just who the hell do ya think ya are?" He said as he launched himself at his opponent. The boy quickly turned to face the oncoming boss. As he drew near, the boss pulled his right arm back slightly and swung it out as a punch. The boy moved out of the punches path and closer to the boss. At the same time, he blocked the punch with one hand and some of his own with the other. The boss tried to use his free hand to strike, but the boy easily blocked it and continued to pound on the boss. In no time at all, the boss found himself falling backwards onto the ground. He tried to get up, but the boy threw one last attack and the boss was out cold.

While the boss was getting his butt handed to him, the thug pinning Mion's arms down was stunned by how a kid just beat the crap out of his buddies. Realizing that she had an opportunity, Mion swung one of her now freed legs up and kicked the thug in the head. Despite his tough exterior, the kick was more than he could take. As he was collapsing, Mion throw another kick, this time to the thug's side, causing him to fall sidewise, instead of onto her.

The boy approached Mion, who was still on the ground. Mion could see that he was a boy around her age. He had black hair done in a short pony tail. He was wearing dark blue jeans, and a plain green shirt. He walked over and boy briefly looked down at Mion before looking forward.

"Are you hurt?" the boy asked. Mion shook her head.

"That's good," the boy answered, his eyes still looking away from Mion. _That's strange_, Mion thought. _Why is he looking away? _She realized that her shirt had been ripped open and her jeans were partially removed. Meanwhile, the boy had gone back to the box he had set down and pulled out something. Mion began to pull her jeans on when the young man walked up and tossed her what he had pulled out. "You can use that."

The object landed softly on Mion. It was a shirt. Mion pulled her pants then sat up. She looked down at the shirt, briefly wondering why this guy was carrying an extra shirt around. She removed what was left of her own she and replaced it with the new one.

"It's OK now," she said. The boy slowly turned his head towards Mion. He had light blue eyes. There was a look of concern on his face, but it had been replaced with one of relief. He reached down and offered Mion a hand getting up.

As Mion got up, they could hear the sound of an approaching police car. Mion and the boy started for the street. Mion felt fine enough to walk on her own. Along the way, the boy stopped to pick up the box he had dropped during the fight. Mion glanced over and saw that it was filled with an assortment of neatly folded clothes. A moment later, two police cars stopped at the entrance to the alley. As the officers got out of their cars, the boy called out. "Over here, officer!"

"We received a call about another assault," said one of the officers as he approached.

"They're in here." the boy said as he tilted his head towards the fallen thugs. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't stand by and let them assault another person." The officers began to secure the scene and separated Mion and the boy to take their statements on the incident. After hear Mion's account of the incident, the officer asked her if she would like them to drive her home, to which Mion agreed. The officer loaded Mion's bike into the car and then let Mion in. After that, the officer drove Mion home.

The ride was a quiet one. Mion kept thinking over about what had happened and about that boy who saved. Suddenly, she realized something. "I never asked what his name was!"


	9. Chapter 9

It was the morning of the Cotton Drifting Festival. The sun was out and there were a sparse number of clouds in the sky. The main road was full of people celebrating and going about the booths. Little kids ran looking at all of the neat games and goodies available at the booths. Occasionally, you could hear booth vendors advertising their products.

Keiichi and Rena arrived together. As they reached the top of the stairs, they saw that Satoko and Shion were already there. "Where's Mion?" Rena asked Shion and Satoko as they approached. "No idea," answered Shion. "She said something about final preparations when I saw her last." Shion did have some idea of where Mion was. Shion had heard about what happened to her sister last night.

The assault had left a bruise on Mion's face. She had spent much of the early morning trying to find a way to hide it. In the end, she was unsuccessful. When Shion saw her that morning. Mion had asked her not to tell the others about what happened. Before she left, Mion said she had some last minute work that she had to take care. When Shion asked what it was, Mion avoided the question and instead asked Shion to go and take Satoko to the festival and then she ran off.

Shion was confused by this. Satoko was old enough to get herself to the festival, something Satoko would be quick to point out. The last time she was asked to do that was by Satoshi, just before he... Shion shook that thought out of her head and did as Mion asked. Surprisingly, Satoko did not object, except to the use of the term 'take', which she rephrased as 'go with'.

Back in the present, Satoko teasingly answered Keiichi, "She's probably finishing her plan to get back at you, Keiichi." Before Keiichi could do a come back, Rika showed up. "Sorry for keeping you waiting," Rika greeted them. She was wearing her red hakama and white haori for her ceremony in the evening.

"You look great, Rika," Satoko commented.

"It looks better on you than last year," Shion said.

"Soo cuute." Rena exclaimed. "I want to take you home with me!"

While they were admiring Rika's outfit, Mion showed up. When they saw her, they immediately noticed the small bruise on her face. "What happened to you?" Satoko asked. "It's nothing," Mion waved her hand dismissively and said. "I just walked into a wall." Before anyone else could ask her why she was late or about the bruise, decided to start things off. "Now that we are all here, let the Battle of Six Evils begin!" Mion said.

The first round of the battle was an eating competition at all of the booths. They went from booth to booth, chowing down on cotton candy, ice cream, and other goodies. They soon arrived at a familiar booth.

It was the booth that Keiichi had help set up. It was now complete with a banner, which had some restaurant's name on it, followed by the word 'Taiyaki'. "So he's selling taiyaki," Keiichi said out load.

"What are you talking about?" Rena asked curiously. "It's nothing," Keiichi explained. "I just helped the guy in charge of the booth set it up. He said what they were serving was a surprise."

"Maybe he'll give us a discount for your work," Mion said as approached the booth. There was no one up at the front of the booth, but they could hear someone working in the back. "Excuse me," Keiichi called when he reached the bar.

"I'll be with you in just a minute, sir," a voice answered from the back. A moment later, a young man with black hair and where an apron, with the same logo on it from the banner, came out from behind the booth carrying a batch of taiyaki. Mion instantly recognized him.

"You!" Mion exclaimed, as she pointed at him, before she realized what she was doing.

"Is something wrong, Mion?" Rika asked. "Do you know him?" All of Mion's friends were now looking at her with great interest and curiosity.

"Well...uhh..." Mion mumbled nervously as she tried to make an excuse.

"We met in town a few days ago in passing," the young man quickly answered. It seemed that he understood that Mion did not want to tell her friends about the incident yesterday just yet. "Though I didn't introduce myself then. I'm Takashi."

"What's going on here?" a new voice inquired. Everyone turned to see an older man approaching the booth. It was the man that Keiichi had helped the other day.

"Oh, it's you." the man said when he saw Keiichi. "I see you brought your friends with you." The man then turned to the young man working the booth. "That's the young man who helped me set up the booth. I didn't know that you knew each other."

"Actually dad, I've only met..." Takashi started to say, but then realized that he did not know any of their names. "I'm sorry, but I didn't ask your name when we met in town."

"Oh, I'm Mion," Mion said. After her, the others introduced themselves. Once they were done with the introductions, Takashi's dad turned towards his son.

"Well, your shift is over, so go ahead and go hang out with your friends." he said. "You're welcome to join us," Keiichi said. "Alright," Takashi answered as he started to take off his apron. "So what are we doing?" Takashi asked as he left the booth and joined them.

As it turned out, Takashi was able to do well in the competition. At the ring tossing booth, he was able to score the highest out of all of them. Their next stop was the shooting gallery, where Takashi did well again, but was not the highest scorer.

"That makes Takashi two and Keiichi one," Mion announced as they finished at the shooting gallery.

"Weren't we all competing against each other?" Keiichi inquired.

"Well, that was before Takashi joined in," Mion began to explain as if it were obvious. "It only makes sense that the only two boys in the group should compete against each other."

"You're just doing this to get back at me for the last game." Keiichi angrily retorted.

"Be a man and stop making excuses, Keiichi." Mion replied dismissively.

"At least she's not using you to get back at someone else." Takashi pointed out.

"No," Mion said defensively, "I'm not using you, Takashi." But he and Keiichi ignored her.

"You're not the only one," Keiichi said. "She made me do all of the set up work for our last game." Meanwhile, Takashi nodded in agreement with Keiichi and Mion was becoming angrier. "She can be a..." Keiichi tried to continue, but he was interrupted. Mion couldn't take it anymore.

"Why you guys!" she yelled as she throw two punches, one for each of them. Takashi quickly moved out of the path of Mion's punch and blocked it. "You really shouldn't hit people for no reason like that."

"But if that's what you think," Keiichi began. "Then why did let her hit me?" Keiichi was on the ground, rubbing the bruise that Mion's punch left on his face.

"Because I thought it would be funny." Takashi answered playfully. To this the others laughed. While they laughed, Takashi extends his right hand down and helped Keiichi up. When Keiichi was up, they were starting for the next booth, when Satoko noticed something.

"Hey," Satoko said. "What's going on over there?"

She pointed to a crowd that had formed at one end of the festival. They were all facing away from them towards something in the center of the group. "I'm not sure," Shion answered. Next to her, Mion had a knowing look on her face. "Perfect timing."

Before they could ask what she was talking about, the crowd started to make way for someone. As the crowd moved, they were able to make out some of the features of that person. It was a young man with short blond hair. Over his back, he was carrying a large teddy bear. Satoko's eyes widened in surprise and tears started to form at the sight of this familiar person.

"Nii-nii!" Satoko called out to the blond-haired boy as she ran towards him. A smile formed on the boy's face as his gaze came upon Satoko as she rushed to him.

"'Nii-nii'?" Keiichi repeated. "Does that mean he's Satoshi?"

"Nii-nii!" Satoko cried as she lept towards Satoshi. "You came back!" Satoko tightly wrapped her arms around her brother. "I'm sorry I was gone." Satoshi apologized. He brought the teddy bear he was carrying of his back. "And I'm sorry that I didn't give you this sooner." Satoshi said as he gave the bear to Satoko. "Happy birthday."

"You don't look surprised." Keiichi noted when he briefly looked away from the touching moment to see the others reactions.

"Well, this wasn't exactly a surprise," Mion began as they made their way to Satoko and Satoshi. "You see, it turns out that Satoshi hadn't left the village. Around the time he disappeared, Satoshi went into Level 5 and was formed into a coma by Dr. Irie. He's been in the clinic's basement ever since."

Hearing this, Satoko let go of her brother and turned towards Mion. "If you all knew about this, why didn't you tell me?" Satoko demanded. "That was my doing," answered the voice of Dr Irie. "At the time, there was no hope for him to recover, so I thought it would be better if you didn't know."

"But then, how is he here now?" Shion asked. "A month ago, I was contacted by an organization interested in the work I was doing here," Irie began to explain. "Satoshi had already begun to show signs of recovery, and with their help, I was able to stabilize a lot sooner than I thought."

_So that is what was going on_, Shion thought to her self about the shipments to the clinic. Meanwhile, Irie continued. "About a week ago, Satoshi woke up and was stable. After a few days of observation, I meet with the village elders about Satoshi."

"And that is where I came up with the idea for this reunion," Mion finished for him. "So you all knew?" Satoko inquired.

"I knew where Satoshi was, but I didn't know he recovered," Shion said.

"You two were the only ones we didn't tell," Mion confirmed.

"Wait, no one told me!" Keiichi annoying exclaimed. "Oh, I guess I forgot," Mion answered, though you could hear in her voice that she had not forgotten. Meanwhile, Satoshi got up and walked to Shion. Reaching out with his hand, he patted her on the head, like he did back when they first met. "Thank you for taking care of my sister," he said. "I can't take all the credit," Shion said. "She's grown up a lot since you've been gone." Shion noticed that there was something different about how Satoshi patted her head now as opposed to two years ago. Before she could think about it any more, Satoshi had moved on to introduce himself to Keiichi.

When the excitement of the reunion had settled down, they went back to the Battle of Seven Evils, seven now that Satoshi had joined them. They continued to have fun for the rest of the day. In the evening, Rika did her ceremonial dance for the festival. After that, the villagers started to take chunks of cotton and sent them adrift in the river.

It was getting late and Takashi had to go. Before he left, Mion came up to him, away from her friends. "Thank you," she said. Takashi smiled. "It was no problem and I had a good time with you and your friends."

"Will you be here tomorrow, so I can return your shirt?" Mion quietly asked. She didn't want anyone to over hear that. "Yeah, I'll be here tomorrow morning helping my parents pack up the booth,"

"Alright, I'll see you then."

Meanwhile, Shion was watching Satoshi and Satoko setting two pieces of cotton adrift in the river. She hadn't stopped smiling since she saw that Satoshi was awake. She was so happy. Suddenly, Shion thoughts were interrupted when she noticed that Satoshi was looking over at her. Before she could read anything from his expression, he quickly turned and looked back at Satoko.


	10. Chapter 10

It was the day after the festival. Everyone around was hard at work taking cleaning and packing up. Mion was hurriedly walking along the street that was so crowded last night. She was carrying Takashi's shirt, neatly folded in a bag.

As Mion approached the booth, she saw Takashi outside, working on disassembling the booth. With him, there was a woman with long, black hair.

"Hey," Mion said when she reached the booth. Takashi and the woman turned towards Mion. She could now see that the woman had the same light blue eyes as Takashi.

"So this is one of the kids from yesterday?" the woman asked Takashi.

"Yeah, mom. This is Mion. Mion ..." Takashi paused and remembered. "I didn't get your family name."

"Oh, right," Mion said. "It's Sonozaki."

"Sonozaki?" the woman repeated curiously. "It's nice to meet you Miss Sonozaki," she said. "I'm Takashi's mother."

"It's nice to meet you too." Mion greeted. Just then, Takashi's mother noticed what was in the bag Mion was carrying.

"Isn't that your shirt, Takashi?" She said as she looked back at her son, then back at Mion. Her facial expression changed and gave the unmistakable impression that she thought that her son and Mion were involved. "It's not like that, mom." Takashi quickly said in his defense. The expression on his mother's face turned back to normal. "Oh." she said.

"Well, I have to get these to the car," Takashi's mother said as she pickup a box on the ground. "I'll be back in a few minutes." When Takashi's mother was away, Mion handed Takashi his shirt back. "Thank you for the shirt," Mion began. "and for what happened in that alley."

"Also," Mion continued, somewhat hesitantly. "I want to thank you again for not mentioning what happened then to my friends."

"You don't need to thank me for that," Takashi replied. "It was obvious that you hadn't told them." There was a brief pause in the conversation after that. It was ended when Mion suddenly spoke up.

"I work at the at the toy store near that alley. I get off around 18:00, if you ever want to hang out."

"Yeah, that would be great." Takashi answered.

"I wonder what they are saying?" Satoko asked. She, Keiichi, Rika, Shion, Satoshi, and Rena were hiding in the stairway up to the shrine. They thought something was up with Mion when they ran into Takashi during the festival. And when Shion saw Mion leaving the house with a boy's shirt, she figured it out. So she called the others and they followed her to here.

"Rena knew she recognized him," Rena said as she continued to watch. "He was the kid who caught those thugs who attacked that lady in the town." Just then, Takashi leaned in closer to Mion. "What's he doing?" Satoko asked quietly.

"Probably something romantic." Shion speculated.

"We are being watched by your friends." Takashi whispered to Mion.

"Those…" Mion began angrily, but before she could get worked up Takashi interrupted her. "I think I know a way to get back at them." Takashi said with a mischievous smile. "Just follow me."

Back with the others, they saw Takashi straighten up and signal for Mion to follow him.

"Where are they going?" Rika asked.

"I guess they went somewhere a little more…private." Keiichi said. "I didn't know Mion was that kind of girl."

"What was that?" an angry voice demanded from behind them. They all jumped. Behind them, Mion and Takashi were standing there. "When did you… How did you do that?"

"We walked." Takashi answered calmly.

"You guys…" Mion growled angrily as she moved towards them. Afraid of what Mion would do to them, they all took off running. "Get back here!" Mion shouted as she chased after Keiichi and the others.

_A few days later..._

The sun was beginning to set in the sky. Shion and Satoshi were walking along the dirt road to the village. They were heading home after a meeting of the game club at the school.

"I'm surprised that Satoko let you go somewhere without her." For the past few days, Satoko and Satoshi had been inseparable. It was difficult enough to get her to leave him alone so he can use the bathroom. "Did I tell you that she even set up alarms to the door and window of my room?"

"She said that she wanted to make a special surprise for dinner tonight." Satoshi continued. "I'll tell you about it tomorrow."

"Actually, you might not be able to," Shion said nervously. "You have to go back to that private school?" Satoshi asked. Shion nodded. "Yeah. I can't stay away from there much longer."

"But don't worry, I'll be back soon to visit." she quickly followed up with.

Suddenly, Satoshi stopped. "Shion…", he began. Shion stopped and turned around. The look on Satoshi's face was an uncertain one.

"Thank you for visiting me while I was in the clinic."

"How did you..." Shion began.

"Dr. Irie told me you came to visit me frequently while I was asleep," Satoshi explained.

"And I also heard your voice."

"Y-you heard me?" Shion asked.

"Well, I couldn't tell who it was or what they were saying. At first, it felt dangerous." Satoshi continued.

"But eventually I began to make some sense out of what the voice was saying. And I realized that it was you. Your voice started to pull me back to my sanity." There was a long pause after Satoshi said. Then, as if to muster up all of his courage, he gulped and began to finish what he was saying.

"It also showed me your feelings for me." he said as be moved closer to Shion. Shion was so nervous over what was going on that she almost stepped back away from Satoshi.

"It's ok, Shion." Satoshi assured her as he drew near. "I love you too." When Shion heard those words, her face turned red and her heart started beating like crazy. The two slowly drew closer. Their lips pressed together. Shion could feel Satoshi's warm breath against her face. She closed her eyes and enjoyed this moment. A moment she dreamed of ever since she meet him.

The two continued to kiss as the sun set behind the forest.

End of Story 0

_Message from Author: I'm really sorry for taking so long in doing this story and for any quality problems in it. I hope you enjoyed this story and the happy ending. I have more stories in the works. The next one will be on something that I think they should have officially done. After that, I have already under work a continuation that takes place about twenty years later. _

_I would like to thank everyone for their feedback and favoriting of this story._


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